314 



partial decomposition. With weak acids there is no perceptible 

 action ; but when they are concentrated and gently heated, a gas is 

 given off, and crystalline salts are produced. 



The chloride is insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol and in 

 ether, from which last liquid it crystallizes in satiny needles, which are 

 very volatile and provoke sneezing and lachrymation. It burns with 

 the characteristic lead flame, and by long digestion with concentrated 

 hydrochloric acid, is converted into chloride of lead and volatile 

 products. 



The sulphate also appears as a crystalline mass when plumbic-bis- 

 ethyl is gently warmed with a few drops of concentrated sulphuric 

 acid. It is conveniently prepared by agitating the materials in a 

 stoppered bottle, an exit being made from time to time for the gas 

 which is liberated. 



Both these salts require analyses to fix their composition, the 

 details of which the author hopes shortly to be able to communicate. 



The Action of Zinc-ethyl on Chloride of Silver. 



These substances react with some violence, and a black substance 

 sinks in the liquid, which proved to be a mixture of chloride and 

 metallic silver. The zinc-ethyl seems partly to escape decomposition, 

 even when the chloride is in excess and considerable heat is applied. 

 On the addition of water, effervescence sets in, and chloride of zinc 

 is alone found in solution. 



In another experiment dry ether was employed instead of water, 

 under a supposition that a solid compound might be formed, soluble 

 in that menstruum. The only reaction, however, appeared to be 

 that expressed by the equation, 



C 4 H 5 Zn+ AgCl=Zn 01+ Ag+C 4 H 5 . 



A similar negative result was obtained when zinc-ethyl was made to 

 react on protochloride of platinum, Pt Cl. The action is violent, 

 and the platinum is thrown down in the form of platinum-black. 



The same remark also applies to protochloride of copper, Cu 2 Cl, 

 when similarly treated ; no combination of copper and ethyl could 

 be thereby eliminated. 



